Page 1 of The Life of Brian - Criterion Version (Region 1)

I usually get my DVD`s from Play but have just noticed that CDWOW have recently got their act together on non-region 2 titles.

I was going to get the Criterion verion of LOB from Play working out at roughly 42 Euro (divide by 1.6 for Sterling = 25.99) cos it has all the extras that the Region 2 version doesn`t but just by chance checked CDWOW.ie (Irish version I know - presume similar saving on UK site but it`s free worldwide delivery either way!!) and it worked out at 29.99 Euro (about 18.74 stg).

Also noticed that CD`s can be up to 4 or 5 euro cheaper on CDWOW. It`s worth checking both sites if you`re looking for any CD or DVD as for international customers anyway these two sites are the best. Just checked DVDsoon and they work out just slighlty dearer than cdwow for LOB but I`ve never used them so I`ll stay with what I know!

May want to wait to see what Columbia do in the UK R2 due later this year. Luckily they have now got the rights from Paramount (who did the dire p/s effort a year back). Given their excellent Holy Grail will hopefully do something similar with Life of Brian. Also would expect to be cheaper.

Have a look on this:

http://www.dvdpricecheck.co.uk/

It will search through about 60 or so websites to find the cheapest disc.

Having bought the Criterion LOB disc about a year ago, I can recommend it, it`s much better than the awful R2 version.

"Having bought the Criterion LOB disc about a year ago, I can recommend it, it`s much better than the awful R2 version."

Please tell why?

A potential investor ;)

Just a note for anybody who can only play region 2 titles, the Criterion release of Life of Brian is in fact Region 0 and happily plays on region 2 only players.

Dvd Vicar : to answer your question, there are no extras to mention of on the R2 release, whilst on the Criterion release there are 2 audio commentaries, deleted scenes, docomentary plus more. Also, and most importantly the picture on the Criterion release is 16:9 widescreen compared to the shoddy Pan & Scan R2.

Anyway, having had both releases I can highly recomend the quality of the Criterion package, and would recomend the purchase of it, for any concerning fan of the pythons.

This item was edited on Sunday, 12th January 2003, 22:56

I have a 16:9 R2 LOB - bought it from Denmark - must have been a different distributor. Might have to sell it before a full on SE comes out...

I hope the Pythons don`t turn this into another Spinal Tap. And by that I mean both Criterion and MGM released their own versions of Spinal Tap, both of which are very good and worth having. Hence there`s no definitive version and the consumer is forced to choose. (As it happens the Criterion version is OOP and rare now).

One of the few things I don`t like about Criterion is you never know if the studio who own the long term rights to the film are going to do their own version at some point after Criterion`s contract has lapsed. As an owner of the Criterion LOB I`d be a bit miffed to find <whoever> are going to release a super-duper version in the future with a whole bunch of Python extras and fun.

The Holy Grail disc was SO good I might just be forced to get a LOB:SE release anyway. I almost died laughing when I saw Dentist on the Job :)